1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and a system for simulating a catalytic cracking process. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a kinetic computer model for a catalytic cracking process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a refinery operation such as a fluid catalytic cracking system, the number of different molecules involved runs into the thousands. Consequently, it is impossible, or at least greatly impractical, to investigate each of the thousands of molecules to determine the kinetics of a system or to characterize feed stocks or products. However, it is known to partition molecules into a number of classes and then to consider each class as an independent entity. For example, it is possible to consider all oxygen molecules as "oxygen", even though the kinetic energies of the individual oxygen molecules are different. Such grouping or lumping is used in a standard petroleum processing analysis known as PONA, in which all species are divided into 4 classes: paraffins, olefins, naphthenes and aromatics.